Pub quiz

The monthly pub quiz saw a new winner!

It was Friday 25th June and soon after 8pm I teleported to The Open Arms for the ‘Fourth Friday’ quiz. Being a very hot evening, residents had decided to sit outdoors and were already consuming both virtual and real alcoholic drinks apart from Kered who was having a mouse for tea. A real life power cut meant that our Quiz Mistress vanished without warning for a few minutes before the start of the quiz, however, the time was filled talking about iphones, acupuncture, hypnosis, liposuction, and queries from the new contestants about the difficulty level of the previous quizzes. With the return of Jadis, but no sign of Rocky appearing to defend his quiz crown, the instructions on how to take part were issued.

So that we couldn’t spy on her for answers, Jadis stood away from the contestants, but Kered sat on top of the fountain to try and gain an advantage. Perhaps due to this, newcomers were then told that because questions are asked at a fast rate there is no time for cheating and were then taught how to make a note card in which to save their answers. To make a note card, open the inventory, click Create on the top toolbar of the inventory, click on new note, change the description of the note, write in it whatever you need, click save at the bottom of the note, then find new note in note cards under recent items in the inventory, right click it and select rename (for quiz mine was ‘Tori’s answers 25/06’). At the end of the quiz we would swap note cards, Jadis would give each of us the answers on a note card and then via instant message we would give her the score of the person whose answers we had marked.

With note cards at the ready and several people jokingly asking if they got points for doing that, Jadis finally got the quiz underway. There were five categories: name the rivers these capital cities stand on, food & drink, science & nature, sitcoms and film quotes.

Of the fifty questions asked, see how you fare with this selection (answers at bottom of the page)

1. Cairo is on which river?

2. What shape is the pasta called rigatoni?

3. Which subterranean animal shares its name with a measurement of substance?

4. Look at the picture and how many of these sitcoms can you name?

5. Which film does this quote come from: "All the best people have bad chests and bone diseases. It's all frightfully romantic!"?

Perhaps due to the difficulty of the questions frying our brains we then had a major and amusing mix up over the note cards with more than one person marking another’s card and then Jadis receiving different scores for the same person. Eventually the situation was resolved and around 9.30pm the winners were announced: joint second with each winning $500 were Groovy Magic and your very surprised reporter and the winner was Jonno Stromfield who received $750 and the congratulations of everyone. Organising the quiz is time consuming so many grateful thanks to Jadis for doing it and educating us all in areas outside of our academic interests.

Friday 23rd July (fourth Friday) at 8pm is when the next quiz will be held and with Rocky promising to be there to fight for his crown it should be an interesting and fun evening. Please come along and join the regulars, the more the merrier! All of the photos from this quiz can be seen at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ouvirtualworlds/sets/72157624232166845/

Answers to quiz questions: 1. Nile, 2. Tube shaped, 3. Mole,

4. The sitcoms are:

4. (1) The Young Ones

4. (2) MASH

4 (3) Friends

4. (4) Only Fools and Horses

4. (5) Open All Hours

4. (6) Fawlty Towers

4. (7) Chance in a Million

4. (8) Just Good Friends

4. (9) Two point Four Children

4. (10) The Ghostbusters of East Finchley

5. Heavenly Creatures

Pub quiz

Tori Landau reports on the latest pub quiz.

Shortly before 8pm on Friday 28th May I teleported to my allotment and flew over to the pub. There was a distinct chill in the air so I found the rest of the Open Arms regulars inside and already helping themselves to sandwiches and beverages. Our Quiz Mistress for the evening, Jadis Mai, logged in on time ready to start the quiz; however, due to real life meals being consumed an executive decision was made to wait until 8.15pm. These 15 minutes were not without some excitement though due to the appearance of Kickaha’s alt, Loyd Grossman. The rumour had been that the beautiful red fox had been killed off by the raven; however, here he was in all his magnificent furry glory sitting on a barstool and conversing with OUtopians. It seems though that the raven still has the upper hand in the avatar stakes as just before the quiz started Loyd was logged out and a few minutes later the raven logged in... we thought it may have been to heckle the contestants, but no, he stayed away from the pub much to our relief (just joking Kickaha!).

Jadis sat away from the contestants so that we wouldn’t see the answers (and I think to have a sneaky drink) and then explained to anyone new to the pub quizzes how cheating would be avoided, which is basically that the questions are asked quite quickly so the answer is whatever pops into your head first. The next query from newcomers was how would the answers be recorded and marked. So, the quiz was already becoming educational for anyone who didn’t know how to make a note card in which to record answers. For anyone reading this who doesn’t know how to create a note card you open the inventory, click Create on the top toolbar of the inventory, click on new note, change the description of the note, write in it whatever you need, click save at the bottom of the note, then find new note in note cards under recent items in the inventory, right click it and select rename (for quiz mine was ‘Tori’s pub quiz answers 28/05’). At the end of the quiz we would swap note cards, Jadis would give each of us the answers on a note card and then we would give her the score of the person whose answers we had marked.

Again we were all individual contestants with no teams being entered and after checking this, Jadis started the quiz. There were five categories: Animal Groups, Capital Cities, Collectors, Inventors & Inventions and Sport.

Here is a small sample of the questions asked (answers at bottom of the page)

1. A shrewdness of ...?

2. Capital city of Spain is?

3. A Conchologist collects what?

4. Who invented jeans?

5. Who was the 1996 Formula 1 world champion?

With a bit of false start due to contestants not paying attention, complaints regarding the difficulty of the questions this time around (including accusations directed at the Quiz Mistress during the Collectors round that the words had been made up), swearing, the Publican and others coming in to see how brainy or not we all were and a few note card mix ups that made me think of ‘pass the parcel,’ this quiz night was a lot of fun and very different to last time around when we had all been very quiet and well behaved.

With everything sorted out and note cards finally marked, shortly after 9pm Jadis announced the winners in reverse order: 3rd was Lilac Lupindo winning $250, 2nd was Kira Gilgandra winning $500 and Rocky Joans was the winner (for the second time running) and received $750 and many congratulations. Many thanks to Jadis for organising and running the quiz.

Answers to quiz questions: 1. Apes, 2. Madrid, 3. Shells, 4. Levi Strauss, 5. Damon Hill

Pub quiz

It was a beautiful, sunny evening when some residents gathered for OUtopia’s first pub quiz on 6th March. A collective decision was, therefore, made to sit outside and hope that a wind would not pick up and drown out our Quiz Mistress for the evening, Jadis Mai.

Before we began, however, there was the issue of how to avoid cheating which Jadis assured us would be impossible as we would not have time to cheat; answers would be whatever came into our heads first. Then there were the questions of how to record our answers and how would they be marked. So, for those of us who didn’t know how to make a note card in which to record our answers, the quiz was already proving to be educational. For anyone reading this who doesn’t know how to create a note card you open the inventory, click Create on the top toolbar of the inventory, click on new note, change the description of the note, write in it whatever you need, click save at the bottom of the note, then find new note in notecards under recent items in the inventory, right click it and select rename (for quiz mine was ‘Tori’s answers’). At the end of the quiz we would swap notecards, Jadis would give each of us the answers on a notecard and then we would give her the score of the person who’s answers we had marked.

Finally we were ready to begin and after checking that we were all individual contestants with no teams being entered, Jadis launched into the quiz. There were five categories: 20th Century, film songs, general knowledge, music and places. So dear reader let us see how you fare with a question from each section (answers at bottom of the page)

1. James Earl Ray was responsible for whose death in 1968?

2. Which film is ‘Show me heaven’ by Maria McKee best known for?

3. Which children's TV show did Roy Castle present?

4. What is the home country of Van Morrison?

5. Which English county with a sea border has the shortest coastline?

Silence mostly reigned during the quiz itself as we scratched our virtual heads although one avatar was heard to mutter that most of their answers were ‘pass’ and they hoped that in the places category that ‘pass’ may be an actual answer. After the quiz ended and answers marked with some role reversal going on as students marked tutors’ note cards, Jadis announced the winners in reverse order: Joint 3rd were Strangie Vaher and Jemsyn Fairlady, 2nd was Kered Rickena and, trumpet fanfare please, Rocky Joans was the winner. Congratulations to Rocky and many thanks to Jadis for organising and running the quiz.

The next pub quiz is at 8pm on Friday 28th May so im Jadis Mai if you wish to enter as either an individual or part of a team. Hope to see you there!

Answers to quiz questions: 1. Martin Luther King's, 2. Days of Thunder, 3. Record Breakers, 4. Northern Ireland, 5. Durham